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Researching St Pixels
1) Who is covered by these guidelines?
We define a ‘researcher’ as anyone who is here to gain first hand knowledge of the St Pixels community in order to reflect on that elsewhere, whether in an academic paper, dissertation or thesis, for a newspaper or magazine article (online or offline) or for other reasons. We are happy to co-operate with researchers provided they are open about their interest in research and stay within our guidelines for researchers.2) What are my ethical obligations when conducting research into St Pixels?It should be assumed that ethical issues are identical to those for traditional research. If there is a conflict between the needs of subjects and the integrity of the research, it is not acceptable to give priority to the integrity of the research. The rights of subjects come first. Many ethical lapses stem from a researcher's sincere dedication to the quality of results. A frequent mistake made by researchers in Internet communities is to forget that real people are involved. While producing high quality research results is in itself an ethical imperative, it always takes back seat to the needs of subjects. Therefore: • Consent is always required from St Pixels management and from each individual who might become involved. • Proposals or actions which may damage or offend St Pixels users or disrupt the St Pixels environment are not acceptable.• Taking reasonable steps to prevent inaccuracies and factual errors is also an ethical obligation.For further discussion of the ethics of researching online go to: http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/ethics3) What permission do I need before I start my research?All researchers should contact the St Pixels management with details of their research programme and methodology, and gain their written agreement before beginning to publicise, or starting to gather material for, their research. Proposals should cover such matters as the objectives, methodology and use of material, the way in which the researcher intends to stay within the Core Values, details of any academic, professional or ethical body supervising the research, how research activities will be kept wholly separate from any commercial activities, and other points on which the management require clarification. We reserve the right to ascertain direct from the accrediting body what means they will adopt to supervise and approve the research. Even then, we may refuse permission if we do not believe it will be in the interests of the community here.4) Am I allowed to participate in the community if I am researching it? We encourage researchers to participate in the St Pixels community as members and to form relationships with other members. In doing this, researchers should:• Be open about their research and should clearly differentiate between participation in discussions as a member and their research activities. • Clearly state when they are gathering information and opinions for their research rather than expressing a personal opinion. It is unethical to provoke a discussion in order to provide research material or to express opinions as your own that you do not really hold in order to provoke responses for use in research.
5) Whose permission do I need to quote material posted on the St Pixels site? • All posters retain copyright of the material published on the site, but no-one other than the poster is allowed to re-use their material without permission from the St Pixels management. Use of direct quotes has therefore to be cleared firstly with the quoted poster and then with the St Pixels management. This applies even if user names are changed. • No transcripts of conversations in chat room or the 3D environment will be provided. If you wish to quote verbatim from memory or notes you must first gain permission of the participants in the conversation and the St Pixels management. This applies even if user names are changed. • For users over 18, permission can be gained electronically. You may not quote users who are, or you have reason to believe may be, under the age of 18 without physical written consent from their parents. You must seek the permission of an under 18 user before contacting their parents for such consent.6) What steps do I need to take to conceal people's identities in my research findings? Pseudonyms (user names) on a website are often traceable to real people. People often use the same pseudonym on different sites, and therefore care about the reputation of their pseudonyms. St Pixels user names should therefore be treated like real names. Researchers must therefore agree St Pixels management and individual users whether subjects' identities will be disguised, and if so to what degree. Possible levels of disguise are: No disguise – • Pseudonyms and real names may be used with permission of the individual. • The individual's claim to copyright over the work is respected. • The real author of the work is verified. (Some work may be copied or highly derivative, meaning credit belongs to the original author.) • If there is no disguise, the researcher should omit details that would be harmful to the subject if revealed – for example, if you discover that one of the most prolific posters in St Pixels rarely leaves the house and has few friends, you probably should omit that from the written account, even if you believe it significantly contributes to your reader's understanding of St Pixels. Light disguise - • St Pixels is named. • Pseudonyms and some other identifying details are changed. • Verbatim quotes may be used with permission from the individual and St Pixel’s management, even if they could be used to identify an individual. • St Pixels members themselves will probably be able to guess who is being discussed• An outsider could probably guess who was who with a little investigation. • Details that are potentially harmful to individuals should be omitted – e.g. in a study of how St Pixels helps individuals, sensitive details (for example a particular person’s difficulties in real life) should be omitted. Moderate disguise - • A compromise position is chosen, where some people agree to their pseudonyms and details being used and some ask to be lightly disguised. Care is taken that each user quotes is happy with the level of disguise they are being offered. In each case, details that are potentially harmful to individuals should be omitted.Complete disguise –
• St Pixels is not named. • Pseudonyms and other identifying details are changed in all cases. • Verbatim quotes are not used if a search mechanism (eg Google) could link those quotes to the person in question. • Some false details may be deliberately introduced to disguise the subject completely. • No one else would recognize the subject. • Someone deliberately seeking to find a subject's identity would be unable to do so. • Details that would be harmful to the subject if disclosed may be revealed.
St Pixels Time: 3:54 AM
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